Iodine sucked into fermenter through blowoff tube.

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tyrus

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So I crash cooled a fermenting pale ale that had a blow off tube and the difference in temperature in my keezer and in the fermenter created a vacuum and sucked in about one quart of diluted iodine solution into the fermenter. Will this ruin my beer? How does the iodine interact with my beer and is there any chance that it will work it's way out of solution or possibly break down over time?
 
So I crash cooled a fermenting pale ale that had a blow off tube and the difference in temperature in my keezer and in the fermenter created a vacuum and sucked in about one quart of diluted iodine solution into the fermenter. Will this ruin my beer? How does the iodine interact with my beer and is there any chance that it will work it's way out of solution or possibly break down over time?

The iodine solution was your sanitizer?
 
One quart in, I assume, 5 gal doesn't sound good. I assume you mean iodophor, not iodine. If it is iodine the beer is definitely poisoned. Throw it out. If iodophor that's not so poisonous when used at the recommended level to sanitize glassware without rinsing but I'm guessing that at the levels involved here it might be poisonous too. Read the label and MSDS. To be on the safe side, dump it. It's probably going to taste pretty bad anyway.
 
FWIW there is a brewpub near me that uses Idophor for ALL the sanitizing from start to finish. It has permeated into everything and has become it's "house flavor". I would not get crazy and finish out the brew as normal and give it a try. The drain is not going anywhere.

I love using cheap vodka in airlocks/blow off tubes...
 
It was not very dark at all, pretty much clear. I had put only about a 1/2 teaspoon or less in about one quart of water. I had mixed the solution 24 to 48 hours prior to the suckback incident.


So Iodophor states that 1/2oz into 5 gallons gives a 12.5ppm solution.

Your 1/2 tsp = 1/12 oz, which is 1/6 the amount of iodophor in the suggested solution above. This means that even if your 1/2tsp solution was still at full strength ~48 hours later, your beer has a concentration of 12.5/6= 2.083ppm (2.083 mg/L)

The "lowest published lethal dose" of iodine in a human is 28 mg/kg.

That means that a 150lb human (~68kg) would risk death consuming 1904mg of iodine.

1904/2.083=914L of your beer. If you try and drink 914L of your beer, plenty of things will kill you before your suckbacked sanitizer.


I am not a scientist nor doctor, but I think if it tastes okay, just have one a day and you'll be just fine.
 
So Iodophor states that 1/2oz into 5 gallons gives a 12.5ppm solution.

Your 1/2 tsp = 1/12 oz, which is 1/6 the amount of iodophor in the suggested solution above. This means that even if your 1/2tsp solution was still at full strength ~48 hours later, your beer has a concentration of 12.5/6= 2.083ppm (2.083 mg/L)

The "lowest published lethal dose" of iodine in a human is 28 mg/kg.

That means that a 150lb human (~68kg) would risk death consuming 1904mg of iodine.

1904/2.083=914L of your beer. If you try and drink 914L of your beer, plenty if things will kill you before your suckbacked sanitizer.


I am not a scientist nor doctor, but I think if it tastes okay, just have one a day and you'll be just fine.

Between this reply and your avatar I have just coated my monitor with Pale Ale:tank:
 
Read it again.
Originally Posted by tyrus
It was not very dark at all, pretty much clear. I had put only about a 1/2 teaspoon or less in about one quart of water. I had mixed the solution 24 to 48 hours prior to the suckback incident.
Your analysis is for exactly ½ tsp/20 qt. The OP used ~½ tsp/ qt.

Your 1/2 tsp = 1/12 oz, which is 1/6 the amount of iodophor in the suggested solution above. This means that even if your 1/2tsp solution was still at full strength ~48 hours later, your beer has a concentration of 12.5/6= 2.083ppm (2.083 mg/L)

So make that 40 ppm. Fun fact; you can’t use 4 significant figures when your data is one significant figure.
 
Read it again.
Your analysis is for exactly ½ tsp/20 qt. The OP used ~½ tsp/ qt.

So make that 40 ppm. Fun fact; you can’t use 4 significant figures when your data is one significant figure.

That's a good fact! I'm no good at this, honestly :)

However , the primary concern is that 1/4tsp which is now in his beer. The fact that it was diluted in 1qt if water first doesn't really matter much (thankfully OP isn't asking if it's safe to drink his iodophor solution straight up. this is regarding it having been sucked into the fermenter). If anything it would make my calculations (right or wrong) higher than truth (because it's 1/4tsp in ~21 quarts).
 
Read it again.
Your analysis is for exactly ½ tsp/20 qt. The OP used ~½ tsp/ qt.



So make that 40 ppm. Fun fact; you can’t use 4 significant figures when your data is one significant figure.

Essentially it would be 1/2 tsp/21 quarts because 20 quarts of beer plus 1 quart of diluted Iodophor that sucked back into the fermenter. I forgot to mention that it is 6 gallons of beer so now the equation is 1/2tsp / 25 quarts. I'm assuming this is not much at all. I'm just erring on the side of caution with this one. Will the Iodophor break down over time?
 
FWIW there is a brewpub near me that uses Idophor for ALL the sanitizing from start to finish. It has permeated into everything and has become it's "house flavor". I would not get crazy and finish out the brew as normal and give it a try. The drain is not going anywhere.

I love using cheap vodka in airlocks/blow off tubes...

+1 for cheap vodka.
 
OK, my point was that you sucked up a quart of solution at 3X. I inferred that thadass was saying it was 1/6X.

Either way, that’s a bunch. What’s it taste like?
 
I haven't tasted it yet I'm letting it do it's thing for a couple more days and hope some of the iodophor is off gassed with the Co2. I smelled it the other day and it smelled fine. I'm going to finish the recipe out and hope for the best. I'm wondering if some of it will drop out into the trub as well? Guess we'll see how it tastes in another week or two.
 
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